


No.17 Field Surgery

by LiGi



Series: Febuwhump 2021 [17]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Caring Merlin (Merlin), FebuWhump2021, Field Surgery, Gen, Healing herbs, Hurt Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Injury, Pain, no 17, physician Merlin, slightly graphic description of pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 08:07:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29556078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiGi/pseuds/LiGi
Summary: Febuwhump2021 day 17 - Field SurgeryArthur is wounded by a magical creature, luckily physician Merlin is on hand.
Relationships: Merlin & Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Febuwhump 2021 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2137632
Comments: 2
Kudos: 44





	No.17 Field Surgery

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by the wonderful Onehelluvapilot! She is fantastic, go and read her fics too!
> 
> Sorry this one is late, my muse was very uncooperative!

Arthur let the crossbow fall from his hands as the beast collapsed and exploded into smoke. Then he succumbed to the pain and let his head drop back to the forest floor.

“Arthur!”

He heard Merlin screaming his name and then felt the solid weight of his friend dropping to the ground beside him. Arthur squinted through the pain to see Merlin on his knees, his hands reaching for him, panic written across his face.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?”

Arthur groaned. His chest and stomach were in agony. The beast’s tail had smacked him hard across the chest, several of the dagger-like spikes slicing into him under his ribs.

He wished he had his chainmail on, but since they were only out for a game hunt and hadn’t expected to come across a giant reptilian beast with the head of a bear and a tail like a spiked club, he hadn’t bothered to put it on that morning.

He let out a cry as Merlin gently pulled his shirt up to look at the wounds.

“Oh no,” he heard him mutter.

Merlin hastily rolled his sleeves up, pulling off his neckerchief to press against Arthur’s stomach.

“How bad?” Arthur ground out through gritted teeth, following the question with a yell as Merlin’s fingers probed the area around the wounds.

“Four wounds, one’s deep. I’m sorry,” he added as he gently slid his hand up Arthur’s chest, making him recoil and bite his lip to stop crying out again. “A couple of broken ribs too, I think.”

“Explains why I can’t… can’t breathe properly,” Arthur stammered. He tried to shift to a more comfortable position – or at least a less painful one, but only ended up hurting more.

“Steady, don’t move,” Merlin ordered. “I think there’s a bit –”

He stopped talking as a frown deepened on his brow and he ran his fingers across Arthur’s torso.

Arthur couldn’t help the scream that ripped from his throat. Every breath was torture and as gentle as Merlin was being it felt like stabbing fire wherever he put his hands.

“Sorry, I’m sorry.”

Arthur bit down on his lip, hard enough that he tasted blood, and groaned. He screwed his eyes up, feeling tears seeping down the side of his face.

Suddenly Merlin’s hand was on his chin, gently prising his mouth open. He pressed a thick stick against Arthur’s lips.

“Bite on that. This is going to hurt.”

The bark was rough against his lip and it had a bitter green taste but he clamped his teeth around it and whimpered, another scream building as Merlin touched his stomach again.

He was sure he was going to bite right through the stick as Merlin’s fingers seemed to dig into the wound in his stomach. Pain exploded and radiated up and down his torso, igniting fires and making him writhe and scream. He couldn’t see for the tears pouring from his eyes and the blinding flashes of agony. Just when he felt he could take no more torture Merlin sat back.

“I’m sorry, I had to get…” He held up a blood covered barbed fragment. “One of the creatures scales,” Merlin explained. Arthur couldn’t reply, just gasped raggedly around the stick. “There’s two more in there as well,” Merlin said regretfully, his eyes flickering over Arthur’s face.

Arthur whimpered and sunk his teeth into the wood, screwing his eyes shut against more tears and clenching his fists in the earth beneath him.

“Maybe I can –” Merlin’s head shot up, looking around, his eyes searching. “Ah! Don’t move.” He leapt to his feet and dashed out of Arthur’s eye line.

“Coul’n’ if I ‘an’ed to,” Arthur said around the stick, his head falling back to thunk on the ground, the tears he’d tried to squeeze back slipping down the sides of his face.

He couldn’t tell where Merlin had gone; he could move near silently in his soft boots if he wasn’t tripping over things – which he did seem to do less of when he was acting as a physician. The hair at the back of Arthur’s neck prickled and he lifted his head as well as he could, trying to look around. He felt vulnerable lying on the ground, bleeding and helpless. He spat the stick out and let his hand creep back towards his crossbow abandoned beside him.

But it wasn’t long before Merlin was hurrying back towards him from between the trees. He collapsed gracelessly back to the ground and deposited a handful of plants down next to Arthur.

“Are you alright?” he checked, his fingers once more going to the cuts in Arthur’s stomach, pain following his every movement.

“No worse,” Arthur gasped, letting his hand slacken on the crossbow again.

Merlin began mashing leaves between two rocks, grinding them to a pulp. Arthur recognised the spicy herby smell of yarrow and the rotten stink of comfrey.

“I would’ve got you some willow bark,” Merlin said, carefully picking purple flowers off a plant. “But there aren’t any bloody willow trees around here so… I’m sorry, it has to be monkshood.”

“Tryin’ poison me?” Arthur rasped.

Merlin gave him a wicked grin, his eyes twinkling with humour. Arthur found it ridiculously reassuring somehow. The young physician mashed the purple flower into the yarrow and comfrey poultice then began spreading it over Arthur’s torso. It didn’t take long for the area to go numb and Arthur found he could breathe a little steadier with the easing of the pain.

“Alright?” Merlin asked. He nodded and Merlin picked up the stick again, pressing it back into Arthur’s mouth firmly. “Brace yourself.”

Arthur clenched his muscles, his hands digging into the soil again and Merlin put his hands back on his stomach. The monkshood could only numb so much and Arthur yelled again as Merlin started prodding around the wound.

He writhed as Merlin’s fingers dug deeper and deeper into him, igniting fire that spread throughout his torso. He screamed, his teeth cutting through the bark on the stick and down to the softer green inside.

Finally, after what felt like eternity and once Arthur was begging to just pass out, Merlin pulled his hands back. He held up three shards of the creature’s broken scales for Arthur to see before tossing them away and using his neckerchief to wipe the poultice off of Arthur’s stomach. Groaning and whimpering, Arthur let himself flop hopelessly back, his hands loosening their death grip on the ground. His sweaty palms were stuck with mud and dirt.

He blinked up at Merlin, who was tipping his waterskin over the wounds now, washing off the traces of monkshood from Arthur’s skin along with the drying blood, sluicing out the wounds. Tears obscured Arthur’s vision, but he could tell Merlin was clenching his jaw determinedly. He placed new yarrow leaves along the lines of the slashes and tore a strip of his shirt to wrap over the wounds. He tied it tightly, tighter than was comfortable, but it kept pressure on the injuries and Arthur found the pain receding a bit.

Once that was done Merlin laid a gentle hand on Arthur’s sternum, his other hand reaching for the stick in Arthur’s mouth. Arthur loosened his clenched teeth, his jaw screaming protests from the heavy ache that had set in, and let Merlin take it. He spluttered and spat out splinters of bark and Merlin rubbed the back of his hand over Arthur’s lips to help him clear the debris from his mouth.

“Here.” He held the waterskin up and steadied him as he drank what was left in it.

“Thank you,” Arthur managed in a hoarse whisper.

“The wounds need stitching and I’m a little bit worried there might be more bleeding, but Gaius really needs to look at them before I try to do anything else,” Merlin said worriedly, his forehead creased with a frown.

“Let’s get back.” Arthur winced, getting his shaking hands beneath him and pushing himself up a bit. “If you hold me, I think I can walk.”

Merlin helped him get to his feet, catching him as he swayed. New waves of pain washed over him but he leant against Merlin’s side and very slowly they began to move.

**Author's Note:**

> I love any and all comments!


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